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to lament their folly and blindness, we shall ever abhor and detest such atrocious attempts to subvert, under your auspicious sway, the mildest and best of Governments. The wisdom and justice of your Majesty’s counsels, ever since your Majesty’s happy accession to the throne, have been so conspicuous, that we look forward with confidence and well-grounded hopes, that the same just, prudent, and vigorous measures which have so happily distinguished your Majesty’s reign, on the most difficult occasions, will, on this, bring the seditious and rebellious chiefs, and their adherents, to a peaceable and dutiful submission; teach them that a state of independence is a stale of anarchy and confusion, and therefore full of calamities; that their own and Country’s importance and prosperity solely depend on the protection of Great Britain; that to leave them to themselves would be leaving them, as in the times of ancient unsettled States, a prey to their own civil broils, and the victims of wicked and ambitious men; that to return to their allegiance to your Majesty, and due submission to the laws, is their only happiness, and their only title to your Majesty’s clemency. May your Majesty, by their unfeigned repentance, and sincere return to their duty and loyalty, soon have occasion to exert, in their favour, that benign appanage of royal authority, and which your Majesty has at all times so cheerfully extended to the imprudent and unfortunate. But as the attainment of that desirable end must be much accelerated by the hearty concurrence of your faithful subjects at home, to the wisdom of your Majesty’s measures, we deem it our indispensable duty, in so important a circumstance, humbly to assure your Majesty of our fidelity and loyalty to your Majesty, and of our zeal, affection, and firm attachment to your royal person, family, and Government, in support of which we shall ever be ready to sacrifice every thing we hold most dear. That your Majesty may long reign over a free, dutiful, and happy people, and that your royal sceptre may regularly descend to your august line, to the end of time, is the sincere prayer of, may it please your sacred Majesty, your Majesty’s most dutiful and most faithful subjects.
NEW-YORK COMMITTEE. Tuesday, October 17, 1775. The Committee met. Present:
His Worship the Mayor of this City produced a Letter from Governour Tryon, which having been read and considered, Ordered, That Benjamin Kissam, Colonel McDougall, Samuel Verplanck, and Isaac Low, be a Committee for drawing an answer to the said Letter. NEW-YORK CONGRESS TO CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. [Read October 23, 1775.] In Provincial Congress, at New-York, October 17, 1775. SIR: We have used all possible despatch to complete the fortifications on Hudson’s River, and we expect they will be in such forwardness, in about six weeks, as to have most of the cannon mounted. The Commissioners have been directed to make the necessary inquiries respecting the other small batteries, and the obstructing the navigation of Hudson’s River, mentioned by Congress in the order of the 7th inst., to which due attention shall be paid. We are of opinion that four Companies of Matrosses, consisting of at least eighty men each, will be wanted to occupy these forts when completed, and that one Company, at least, should be immediately raised, that we may, in time, have men properly trained to the use of cannon, as the utility of our fortifications will much depend upon it. We are, most respectfully, Sir, your most obedient humble servants. By order: NATHANIEL WOODHULL, President. To the Hon. John Hancock, President, &c. [Enclosed in the foregoing Letter.] In Provincial Congress, New-York, October 17, 1775. Your Committee report that they have perused all the resolutions of the Continental Congress, (which more immediately respect this Colony,) from the 18th May to the 7th instant, and find that the resolution relative to saltpetre and brimstone hath not been fully complied with, and therefore do report it as their opinion— 1st. That all the brimstone and sulphur in this City, not exceeding twenty tons, (except about two tons, to be reserved for the use of vessels,) be purchased and deposited, with all convenient despatch, at some secure place near the powder-mills, in this Colony, under the care of the respective Committee of the County or District where the mills are. 2d. That a letter be written to the respective Colonels of the Militia and Minute-Men in this Colony, requesting them to appoint, and notify to their respective Regiments, some convenient place of rendezvous, where they are to muster, completely equipped, upon any publick alarm, and to remain till marching orders shall be received by their respective Colonels or commanding officers; and that the Colonels be desired to acquaint this Congress of the places they shall so respectively appoint for that purpose. 3d. That in order to give a general alarm throughout the Colony, in case of invasion, and for the purpose of mustering the Regiments aforesaid, that beacons be erected at convenient places and distances throughout the Colony, and; where convenient places cannot be found to erect beacons, that cannon be fixed instead of them; and that some fit person be employed, under the direction and with
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